Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/191

 Further Notes from County Leitrim. 183

servant called out he had a question he wished to ask (for the celebrant must answer any question put to him that moment). When Mass was over, St. Patrick said, " Who was that wretched man who called out ? " The servant then told the saint about the little man and his question.

Said St, Patrick : " You may just go and dig your own grave, for when you tell him the answer he will surely kill you, but don't forget to lay the loy and the shovel crosswise^ over the grave when you have done, for the answer to the little man's question is, ' There is no hope for the fallen angels.' "

Then the man went and dug his grave, and he had just put the loy and shovel over him, when the little red man appeared and asked his question. When he heard the reply he tried to get at the poor servant to kill him, but as he was protected by the cross made by the loy and shovel, he could not touch him. At last he said: "Well, you have answered my question, and though it is against us, I must tell you something as I promised. Go to the bog and throw up some of the turf on it, and let it dry in the sun, and it will make a good fire for you" — and he disappeared. The man got out of the grave then, and he told St. Patrick what the little red man had said, and when they tried they found every word true, and from that day the Irish have used turf for fuel.

WITCHES,

" There were many witches in and round Ireland until St. Patrick came and drove them away" — such is the almost universal remark of the peasantry. "But," said I, "are witches yet quite gone ? " " Indeed they are not", said an old woman, " and I can tell you what happened not so long ago,

" There were two boys in a parish near, and it's many a garden they robbed. There was an old woman living in a cabin in the place, and as she had the reputation of being

^ This is done to this day when a grave is dug.